Royston Community Team

Rural Watch

April 2008

Covering Arbury, Ermine, Weston & Sandon Wards.

Hertfordshire Constabulary are calling on neighbours to look out for suspicious behaviour in a bid to reduce distraction burglaries. The call comes as part of a new initiative which detectives hope will help tackle the problem.

Residents are being asked to display new ‘burglar beware’ window stickers in their homes and cars.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Williamson, from the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: “Distraction burglary means quite literally that a criminal will attempt to distract a person in their home while they or a colleague carry out a burglary. They tend to target the elderly and more vulnerable people in our communities and can be very convincing.

“We’re asking people to display the stickers in their homes to act as a warning to offenders that the residents of the county are keeping a watchful eye on them. But we hope they will have a dual message for residents to report any behaviour which they believe is suspicious, or simply out of the ordinary.”

In a recent example in West Watford, a man dialled 999 to report two men who were acting suspiciously near some sheltered accommodation in his street. Minutes after his call, police officers had arrested the men. They were later found guilty of carrying out a distraction burglary in the home of an elderly man, and are now serving a combined prison sentence of over nine years for the offence.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Williamson, from the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: “We rely on immediate information from residents to be able to apprehend these criminals and this is the main focus for the new initiative. We’re asking everyone to look out for their older and more vulnerable neighbours and report suspicious behaviour to the police immediately with as much information as possible, such as descriptions or car details.”

DCI Williamson continued: “I can understand that some people feel like they may be wasting police time by reporting suspicious behaviour, but we’d rather people report it in the first place and it turns out to be innocent, than not report it at all.”

If you would like a sticker, please contact your local safer neighbourhood team. Contact details can be found on www.herts.police.uk.

Distraction burglaries account for a small proportion of burglaries in the county, however Hertfordshire Constabulary gives the following advice to reduce the risk of becoming a victim of distraction burglary, or bogus callers:

Rule One: If a stranger calls – Not sure? Don’t open the door!

If you are not expecting anyone and you don’t recognise them, don’t let them into your home. Be aware, bogus callers can be very convincing and will often pretend to be representing a utility company; a genuine caller won’t mind coming back at a time when you can arrange to have somebody you trust with you.

Rule Two: If you are expecting a caller:

Only open your door when you are happy that you know the person. If you can’t see who is calling and need to open the door, use your door chain and ask for identification or a pre-arranged password before you let them in.

Rule Three: Never keep large amounts of cash at home

If you ensure that large amounts of money are securely in a bank or building society account and any valuable jewellery is safely and discretely locked away then, even if a criminal cons their way into your home, there is nothing of value for them to steal.

More advice and information about can be found on www.herts.police.uk.

Ashwell	West end / Newham way	27/03/09 1615 - 1640	25 veh / 30 mph / 24.9 mph
Ashwell	Station rd (40 limit)	26/03/09 1830 - 1900	34 veh / 43 mph / 37.7 mph
Bygrave	Upper Bygrave	30/03/09 1155 - 1220	17 veh / 39 mph / 25.8 mph
Barley	London Road	18/03/09 1100 - 1130	30 veh / 33 mph / 27.1 mph
Barkway	Royston Road	30/03/09 1430 - 1500	25 veh / 37 mph / 25.9 mph
Therfield	Hay Green	15/03/09 1210 - 1235	22 veh / 29 mph / 22mph
Newham	Ashwell road	30/03/09 1115 - 1140	22 veh / 30 mph / 24.4 mph
Weston	Damask Green Road	19/03/09 1245 - 1310	18 veh / 29 mph / 19.6 mph
Rushden	Moon and Stars	18/03/09 1245 – 1310	20 veh / 44 mph / 26.4 mph
Hinxworth	High Street	27/03/09 1650 - 1725	18 veh / 33 mph / 25.6 mph

G4E; - Ashwell, Hinxworth, Bygrave, Newnham & Caldecote

Crime No.	Offence	Location	Time & Date
G4/09/254	Burglary	Newnham	20.00 19/03/09
Offenders have smashed window and stolen tools from work shop

Crime No.	Offence	Location	Time & Date
G4/09/257	Theft	Ashwell	09.30 20/03/09
£180 stolen from a commercial premises.

Crime No.	Offence	Location	Time & Date
G4/09/290	Burglary	Newham	26-27/03/09
Offenders have entered office and stole property.

G4D; - Barkway, Barley, Reed, Nuthampstead, Newsells, Kelshall & Therfield

Crime No.	Offence	Location	Time & Date
G4/09/181	Burglary	Nuthampstead Airfield	28/02-01/03/09
A number of clay pigeon traps were stolen

Crime No.	Offence	Location	Time & Date
G4/09/249	Theft	Kelshall	18/03/09
Sat Nav stolen from a parked unlocked and unattended vehicle.

Crime No.	Offence	Location	Time & Date
G4/09/253	Theft	Hay Green, Therfield	19-20/03/09
Tools stolen from vehicle

G3C; - Sandon, Wallington, Rushden, Clothal & Weston

Crime No.	Offence	Location	Time & Date
G3/09/131	Theft	Rushden	12-13/03/09
Vehicle stolen.

Crime No.	Offence	Location	Time & Date
G3/09/142	Theft	Luffenhall	19/03/09
Items stolen from vehicle.

Crime No.	Offence	Location	Time & Date
G3/09/144	Theft	Weston	20/03/09
Items stolen from vehicle.

Reported Hare coursing Incidents in our area.

	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	April	Total
03-04	3	13	28	3	8	13	9	3	80
04-05	4	13	4	0	4	0	1	0	26
05-06	0	3	0	0	1	1	1	0	6
06-07	0	4	4	6	1	0	2	0	17
07-08	3	10	4	6	9	2	4	3	43
08-09	7	5	2	4	4	4	2

Number of Sunday Hare Coursing and Nuisance Vehicle Patrols Carried Out to Reduce. coursing Nusience Motor cycling and Nusience 4 X 4 use, patrols per months, early start preferred, 7am or 8am.
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	July	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
07								3	3	3	0	3
08	9	5	6	8	8	2	2	2	2	3	1	4
09	1	1	3

Last time we attended

RUSHDEN	02/07/08	SANDON	26/03/08
THERFIELD	26/11/08	REED	04/03/09
BARKWAY	15/07/08	BARLEY	04/02/08
KELSHALL	21/04/08	NUTHAMP	01/05/07
ASHWELL	01/10/08	BYGRAVE	14/01/09
CALDECOTE	05/05/08	WESTON	12/03/09
RADWELL	29/04/08	WALLINGTON	02/07/08
HINXWORT	14/02/08	CLOTHALL	02/07/08

Area	Last Meeting	Next Meeting	Location and Time
G4E	19th November 08	Tue 7th April 8pm	Hinxworth Village Hall
G4D	9^th October 08	Tue 21st April 8pm	Therfield Fordham Hall
G3C	23rd October 08	Tue 2nd June 8pm	Rushden Village Hall

Locality

Members

Martin Dingemans, Howard Marshall, Simon Holtom, Robert Law, Teddy Faure-Walker, , Steve Jarvis, Andrew Young, Tony Hunter, Peter Shuttlewood, Keith Bone Christine Schwick, Janette Kingsley.

Meeting

10/03/09

Tasks set

1. High visibility patrols in daylight hours in a bid to Reduce Incidents of hare coursing, Nusience Motor cycling and Nusience 4 X 4 use. Three Sunday Hare coursing Nusience Motor cycling and Nusience 4 X 4 use patrols per months, early start preferred, 7am or 8pm. Log to be published each month.

2. Continue with crime prevention and evidence gathering securing evidence in relation to suspicious vehicles. All suspicious vehicles that appear in rural locations to be full checked and information forwarded to police information systems.

3. Continue with speed checks by PCSO’s to monitor vehicle speeds. Details of locations to be taken from Parish Councils and details published each month.

10 Speed checks a month 3 enforceable.

Surgeries all times 10.30 – 12.00
Barley, St Mary s Church. Barkway, St Mary Church	Rushden, Mill End Nursery Sandon, Cecil Sale Weston Village shop	Ashwell URC Hall
Thur 5th March - Barley	Tues 3rd March - Rushden	Fri 6^th March
Thurs 2nd April - Barkway	Weds 1^st April- Weston	Fri 3^rd April
Thurs 14th May - Barley	Weds 13th May - Sandon	1^st May
Thurs 25th June - Barkway	Weds 24th June - Rushden	5^th June
Thurs 9th July - Barley	Weds 22 July - Weston	3^rd July
Thurs 6th August - Barkway	Weds 5th August - Sandon	7^th August
Thurs 3rd September -Barley	Weds 2nd Sept Rushden	4^th September
Thurs 15th October -Barkway	Weds 14th October - Sandon	2^nd October
Thurs 12th November -Barley	Weds 11th Nov - Rushden	6^th November
Thurs 10th Dec Barkway	Weds 9^th Dec - Weston	4^th December

Please click on the below link to meet some of the people we wish to becomes friends with.

http://www.herts.police.uk/CCTV/gallery.htm

Rural Watch

Jan

RUSHDEN

SANDON

THERFIELD

ASHWELL

BYGRAVE

CALDECOTE

Please click on the below link to meet some of the people we wish to becomes friends with.